


Only Angel

by BillieJoeArmstrong



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015), The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Alternate Universe - No Powers, Concerts, First Meetings, Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-28
Updated: 2018-06-28
Packaged: 2019-05-29 21:18:44
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,566
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15081932
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BillieJoeArmstrong/pseuds/BillieJoeArmstrong
Summary: Barry/Winn. First meeting, pure fluff. Based vaguely on the prompt “We’re at a concert and I can’t see a thing let me sit on your shoulders, maybe?”Alternatively titled Barry Allen gets horny at a Harry Styles concert.





	Only Angel

Barry sighs loudly as he pushes his way past a group of teenage girls in matching homemade t-shirts, shouting and gushing to one another, trying to find Iris or Caitlin in the quickly filling venue. Oh he is going to MURDER them when he finds them. This is their idea of a fun night out? A goddamn One Direction concert?!

All Barry had wanted was a normal birthday. Maybe dinner out followed by cake with his friends. But unfortunately, his 28th has to take the side-line to a freaking boy band’s first ever Central City show. Barry supposes it’s sweet that Iris still cares enough to invite him, but the excessive amounts of teenage girls holding “I heart Harry” signs reminds him this is really not his scene.

To make things worse, the minute they got through the doors of the venue, the girls had zipped off in a flash to try and “get a good spot.” Somehow the enticement of some cute boyband guy seemed to give the girls super speed and amazing evasive skills, because Barry, walking in at a normal pace, like a normal person, had lost them instantly in the crowd.

As Barry nears the stage, thinking that’s where his adoptive sister and their friend Caitlin may be, the lights dim and the crowd becomes incessantly loud. Barry manages to make his way to the barrier near the corner of the stage just as a tall, thin man with long hair in a flower-patterned suit walks on stage. At such point the audience surges forward, sweeping Barry to the side. The man on stage greets everyone in a deceptively charming English accent, and then launches into a song about a girl being an angel or something. Barry turns back and forth, looking for a way out of the crowd, but being so close to the front once the show had started means there is really no way out of the mob pushing him from every direction. Barry sighs and resigns himself to listening and gently swaying to the music.

* * *

 

It’s around the fifth song, one which seems to be about medicine, that Barry feels a tap on his shoulder. He had started to actually get a little into the music, and maybe he was appreciating the good looks of the man on stage too, and the gentle tap jolts him back to full consciousness. Assuming it was Iris or Caitlin, Barry turns around quickly.

“Hey!” he says in a mixture of relief and enthusiasm. Only then he realises it’s not his sister or friend trying to get his attention. It’s a guy, possibly the only other guy his age in the audience, Barry thinks. He’s shorter than Barry, with messy hair of undetermined colour, as the lights of the arena were all purple for this song, and a cute, gentle looking face.

“Hi!” the guy replies with equal enthusiasm, a massive grin on his face. Likely because the dude was excited to find another person as out-of-place at this concert as he is, Barry thinks. “Uhh, you’re very tall.” The guy says. Barry blinks.

“Uhh, yes?” Maybe the guy is just really, really bad at starting conversations with other bored people at concerts.

“And I am not very tall.” The guy continues, “so I was wondering if maybe we could switch places so I can see the stage?”

And… _Oh_ , Barry thinks, _I guess he is here for the concert_. “Yeah. Sure.” Barry answers. The guy’s smile grows and he and Barry do an awkward shuffle of space-swapping. It works, and Barry can see over the short guys head, and the short guy can see the stage past the barrier. The man on stage (who Barry’s starting to doubt actually _is_ One Direction because isn’t that a band? Not just a single guy?) starts singing some kind of cover song, and as it reaches the chorus he shouts to everyone to

“JUMP!”

It’s a really catchy chorus, and Barry finds himself jumping with the rest of the audience even though he’s not really sure what the song is. As the crowd moves everything gets a little more pushed together, and Barry realises he’s basically grinding on the short guy in front’s arse as they jump up and down. Barry stops jumping as soon as he realises but the other guy doesn’t. Biting his lip Barry tries to remind himself that this isn’t a club, and it is totally inappropriate to get horny right now, no matter how enticing this guy’s arse feels rubbing against his crotch. Suddenly the person behind him trips and shoves him forward and it takes everything in Barry not to get incredibly aroused as his chest gets plastered against the guy’s sweaty back. Then the song comes to an end, and everyone shuffles back into a slightly more comfortable position. Barry takes a step back from the guy in front of him and thinks he’s managed to escape utter embarrassment and awkwardness until the singer starts instructing everyone to find a partner.

“And when I reach a certain point in this next song, I’ll yell ‘UP’ and you get up on your partner’s back!” and _oh no_. Barry’s face flushes and he starts to panic a little as the cute guy turns around and smiles up at him.

“So tall guy… Are you as strong as your arms look?” he says, or rather shouts over the noise of the crowd and band, cheeks clearly pink. Barry blinks again, internally flipping out over the rather flirty compliment. He shrugs, trying to play it cool since that seems the only way of redeeming himself now. The guy’s grin widens and he continues “so we could be partners? For this, I mean.” He fumbles, looking embarrassed. Barry takes pity on the guy.

“Yeah sure. I’ll lift you up when the singer dude says.” He replies, trying to act casual but internally freaking out a little because _oh boy this guy’s freaking adorable and possibly maybe just made some sort of double-entendre about being partners… Does that mean he’s into me?_

The guy nods, smiling, and takes Barry’s hand and pulls him into the tiny space beside him so they’re close for when the word is given.

They’re shoulder-to-shoulder now, and Barry can only think of one other scenario in which he might be so sweaty and pressed up against another person, and the slightly sexual lyrics the man on stage is belting out doesn’t help Barry get his mind off that. Cute guy keeps looking over at Barry and grinning, and that isn’t helping either. At this point Barry’s made up his mind: he’ll do what he can to get this guy’s number by the end of the night.

As promised, when the song reaches is climax the singer shouts “UP!” and people around start grabbing each other and lifting. Barry turns to the cute guy and raises his eyebrows, a sort of ‘sure you want to do this?’ gesture. The guy smirks and grabs Barry’s shoulders, pausing for a second to wait for approval.

“Go on.” Barry prompts, and the guy hoists himself up. It’s messy and clumsy, but eventually the guy manages to balance himself on Barry’s shoulders. The people around them start shuffling and Barry grabs onto the barrier to hold himself upright. The music hasn’t started back yet, Barry can hear the singer calling to the crowd, asking someone if they are okay.

“Looks like a group of people have fallen.” Cute guy, who’s now on Barry’s shoulders, speaks loudly. “Man I can see a lot from up here. Is this what it’s like being tall?” he asks, looking down at Barry as best he could. Barry laughs at that, which makes the guy smile proudly. “I’m Winn, by the way.” The guy finishes.

“Barry.” Barry replies, silently revelling in the fact he’s finally got a name and can stop calling him ‘cute guy’. Suddenly the crowd bustles around again, making Barry sway and almost trip. He instinctively wraps a hand around Winn’s thigh to hold him on. It takes Barry a moment to realise what he’s doing, and when he does he quickly let goes of Winn’s leg and blushes. He hears Winn chuckle from above him and is suddenly overwhelmed with embarrassment.

“Barry, dude, it’s all good if you need to hold my leg to keep me up…” Winn starts, trailing off and biting his lip, “you can put me down if you want. I mean, if I’m like, too heavy or something…”

“No. It’s alright. You’re pretty small so, really nice to hold.” Barry’s eyes widen when he realises what he just said, “I mean… You’re easy to lift… Like, not heavy or anything.” He backtracks, wishing he could stop putting his foot in his mouth. Thankfully, Barry is saved from any further embarrassment as the band starts playing again, and the singer launches into finishing the song.

Barry manages to keep Winn on his shoulders for several more songs. Like he said, Winn’s not particularly heavy and it’s not as though Barry has much need to be focused on the stage, he’s not even entirely sure who’s concert he was at anymore, since none of the (admittedly very few) One Direction song he knows have been played. It’s halfway through some song about ‘stopping crying’ and ‘getting away from here’ that a confetti canon goes off, and Barry stumbles, Winn slipping off his back and thankfully landing on his feet. Barry tries to apologise but Winn just shrugs and smiles at him, and Barry’s mind short-circuits as he notices how pretty Winn looks in the colourful glow of stage lights with bits of confetti in his hair. Winn stares back for a moment, before his attention flicks back to the stage, his cheeks visibly red even in the blue lighting.

Eventually the song ends, and Barry pulls his gaze away from Winn to watch the man on stage take a bow and thank everyone for coming out. A few moments later the lights over the audience switch on and the crowd immediately starts thinning. Winn stares at the stage a few more moments before turning around and leaning on the barrier. Now that the lights are on, Barry can see that Winn has light brown hair, which is currently sticking to his forehead with sweat. His skin is pale, as though he doesn’t go out in the sun all that often, and he has a small mole next to his eye which Barry thinks looks cute. He’s beaming and his eyes are sparkling and Barry falls in love just a little bit.

“That was amazing!” Winn shouts, “fuck, wasn’t that just the best, Barry?”

Barry’s brain betrays his rationality and he can’t help picturing Winn saying those exact words in a _different_ scenario. He forces a smile and shrugs.

“I’m not the biggest One Direction fan. But yeah I had a good time.” He somehow manages to say coolly. Winn gets a shocked look on his face.

“Dude, like, you realise One Direction broke up years ago, right?” Winn says, “that, like, wasn’t the whole band… it was just Harry.”

_Oh,_ Barry thinks, _that makes a lot of sense_.

“Huh.” Barry says dumbly, then decides to take a risk and speak his mind. _Just go for it_ he tells himself. “Well, clearly I’m not really a fan…” he laughs and rubs the back of his neck, “but uh, I spent the concert with a pretty cute guy so, I had a really great time.”

Winn seems to freeze for a moment, as though someone had pressed the ‘pause’ button on him. Then he shakes his head gently, smiles, and blushes.

“Well yeah, I mean as good-looking as Harry Styles is, he really has nothing on the tall, handsome stranger I spent the show with. So uh…” he trails off as he sees someone over Barry’s shoulder. Barry turns and sees a blonde girl with chunky-framed glasses waving and clearly calling Winn over. “Shit. I have to go.” Winn says quickly, “but uhh, hey.” He pulls a pen out of his back pocket and takes Barry’s arm, “a little cliché, sorry.” He mumbles as he writes a string of digits down on Barry’s forearm. He then steps back and pauses for a second, still holding Barry’s arm.

Barry bites his lip, his head spinning, as Winn stands on his tip-toes and leans in to give Barry a gentle kiss on the cheek. He goes to pull back and Barry thinks _fuck it_ and places his hand on Winn’s neck, gently pulls him in and presses their lips together. It feels like the confetti machine going off all over again, inside Barry’s chest. It’s warm and explosive, when people say it feels like fireworks to kiss The One, maybe they’re onto something. Barry’s aware that they’re both sweaty, and standing in a massive arena with people milling about all around, but he doesn’t care right now. When they pull apart, Winn has a blush on his cheeks and Barry is sure he looks similar himself. Barry lets his arms drop to his side, and Winn awkwardly gestures toward his friend, mumbling about needing to leave. But they’re both smiling, and looking into each other’s eyes.

“I’ll call you.” Barry says, giving Winn an exit. Winn nods.

“Yeah. And, we should definitely, uhh, maybe. Hang out sometime.” He mumbles. Barry thinks it’s adorable, and his smile widens a little.

“Definitely.” He says, “See you later, Winn.”

“Bye, Barry.” Winn replies, turning to jog off to his friend. Barry watches the two of them leaving the venue, Winn’s friend with a knowing smirk on her face, nudging Winn in the ribs.

* * *

 

Barry meets up with Iris and Caitlin outside the venue. They’re both gossiping and giggling, but as Barry approaches Iris gets an apologetic look on her face.

“Barry! I am so sorry for leaving you behind!” she practically shouts at him, “God I meant for us to stand together and stuff! I didn’t mean to drag you out on your birthday and then just ditch you! It just was really crowded and we got separated… It must have been really uncomfortable for you in there standing amongst a bunch of complete strangers…” Iris trails off as Barry shrugs.

“It actually was pretty great.” Barry smiles, “I think maybe Harry Styles might be my new favourite singer.” Iris raises her eyebrows at that.

“That good, was he?” she asks. Barry laughs, not feeling the need to tell Iris that the real reason he enjoyed the concert so much has less to do with the music, and more to do with the phone number scrawled on his arm, and the feeling of a kiss on his lips.

* * *

 

The next time Harry Styles performs in Central City, Barry’s there. This time, however, it’s not unwillingly. He’s not being dragged along by his sister, he’s not standing awkwardly pretending he understands how each song goes. This time Barry sings along to every word, smiling and swaying along to the music. This time Barry holds his boyfriend under the pink-and-purple lights and kisses him as confetti rains down and the last notes of “Sign of the Times” are sung. This time Barry enjoys every second of the concert, just like he enjoys every minute he spends in love with Winn.

**Author's Note:**

> I get that this is a very rare pair but gdi I will sail this ship myself if I have to. On the off-chance anyone reads this I am considering writing a follow up fic to this one set a few years down the line. Would anyone be interested in that?


End file.
